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Campaigning parent carers in Hertfordshire are celebrating as their local short breaks service has been saved from closure.

You may remember an article asking for help to save Nascot Lawn, a respite centre in Hertfordshire. You can read that article here.

The campaign was a success!

Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) announced that it is setting aside its decision to withdraw funding from Nascot Lawn in Watford ahead of a planned High Court judicial review next week.

Families of children that use the Nascot Lawn had instructed lawyers to take up their fight and were waiting for the High Court to decide whether health bosses acted illegally when they decided to withdraw the funding from the vital lifeline service for families with disabled children.

"We’re delighted that Herts Valley CCG has seen sense at the 11th hour and reversed its decision to withdraw funding from Nascot Lawn.

However, the enormous stress that families have faced could have been avoided if they had been properly consulted from the start.

“This case highlights the vital role short breaks services play in keeping families with disabled children together. For many they are nothing less than a lifeline.

This case should encourage other local authorities and CCG’s to think very carefully and consult fully before proposing the closure of similar services.

The Disabled Children’s Partnership is calling on the Government to review the funding and availability of short breaks services across the country so that disputes like this don't arise in the first place."

Families who use Nascot Lawn were informed last June that the £650,000 funding for respite services operated at the centre would be withdrawn - despite the CCG actually making the decision six months previously.

A petition to save Nascot Lawn was launched and gained 15,000 signatures, it was then discussed in the House of Lords.

You can read the press release from the lawyers fighting on the families' behalf here.